That’s the video from the February 2 game. Watch Johnson let up at the 28-30 second mark. Johnson could have pummeled him. The jagoff Islanders didn’t see that. They don’t see the Penguins lauding Johnson for stepping up for a teammate who was unnecessarily attacked. They see Fleury laughing and overreact by calling up a loser in Haley.

didn’t like Gillies taunting, but what do you call the Penguins laughing on their bench and high fiving while DP was down on the ice. That image played so much more on last nights game then anything. So don’t whine to me about Gillies unless you’re prepared to admit what the Penguins did was just as bad.

Posted by RogerNYLA on 02/12/11 at 12:54 PM ET

Okay, good. So when the Pens play the Isles in April, it’ll be perfectly fine if a Penguin tries to sucker punch an Islander, then another Penguin takes a 25-foot run at an Islander against the boards, hits him in the head - giving him a concussion - then tries to punch said Islander while he’s face-down on the ice…all because Gilles taunted Tangradi - which is sacrilege - you’ll be completely fine with it.

Because the Islanders disrespected them.

And that’s just not okay.

Right?

And if Derek Engelland beats up Haley and, after the refs separate them, #5 makes a beeline towards another Islanders player instead of, you know, going to the penalty box…I’ll be able to laud him for “making a statement” and chant his name with love and fervor with your blessing?

You’d be okay with that, too, right?

Or if I chanted Mark Streit sucks…and he’s not even in the building. You’d be cool with that, right?

I know you would be.

Or…probably not. Actually, there would be a lot of people on here going off about how the Penguins are a black mark on the NHL and Crosby sucks. And whines. And Matt Cooke is dirty.

Not, “Oh wow…the Penguins just made a statement!” “This is a turning point to their season!” or “The Islanders got what they deserved!”

Talbot has nothing resembling a bad reputation in the league (other than Red Wings fans who might dislike him for two goals in Game 7)

The problem is when you score two goals in game 7 to beat the red wings, you are instant enemy #1.

Shitty memory.

Not saying that Red Wings fans love Talbot for his two goals in game seven, but my lasting memory is the slash he delivered to Datsyuk’s bad foot in his first game back from injury in that series. (Game 5)

The largest fine and suspension should go to the Isles coach. Goons get suspended - who cares? They get replaced in the lineup by real NHL players. What kind of deterrent is that? In the case of Haley he was called up for this game - he was going to get sent right down anyways.

So vicious that there’s no video. Not saying it didn’t happen. But if it was so bad, there would’ve been an outcry. Point is, Talbot does not have anything close to a bad reputation in this league.

Posted by cs6687 on 02/12/11 at 01:18 PM ET

There was a f*cking outcry… that’s why I posted a link to articles about it. It was a cheap, shitty move. I’m not saying it was anything remotely resembling the WWE bullshit that went on last night, but if you want to know why Wings fans hate Talbot, it’s because they all remember VERY F*CKING CLEARLY WITHOUT THE NEED TO BE REMINDED BY VIDEO that Talbot maliciously targeted Datsyuk’s injured foot.

What alot of these posts failed to note, is that Haley leads the Soundtigers in goals, so he wasn’t just brought up for his toughness, and he scored a highlight reel goal last night. He completely underessed LeTang and then faked Johnson out of his jock strap!!! Faied to mention that, huh? That “‘minor league loser” made a monkey out of Letang and Johnson!!! Then he beat up the rest of the Pittsburgers.

Haley the loser also has 144 penalty minutes this season. The Sound Tigers also have three other players with ten or more goals. Why didn’t they get called up? Hmm, let me think. Your team planned an ambush last night based on a clean hit by Talbot and Johnson’s fight with Dipietro. Realize the truth here.

Why are the Penguin fans up in arms about Gillies hit, but no mention of Godard’s hit on 5’8 Jack Hillen? I know Hillen didn’t go down like a girl, but Godard left his feet and clearly wanted to injure Hillen. Yes 6’3 or 6’4 Godard tried to injure 5’8 Hillen, and he did, Hillen has a concussion, even though he continued to play last night. I’ll tell you why, because the Penguins are the darlings of the NHL, the Islanders are the trolls. Well after last night, things changed quite a bit. The Islanders won’t be pushed around anymore, and if the league is going to ignore the dirty play of the Penguins, well, then the Islanders are going to have to take matters into their own hands.

DId you like Haley’s goal? I loved it. LeTang looked like LeTurd against the “loser minor leaguer”. You seem afraid to address that goal. You know why, the truth is that Haley looked great last night, and as Jack Nicholson said in “A Few Good Men”, “you can’‘t handle the truth!” Haley embarrassed the Penguins in every aspect of the game.

Seriously, what did you think of Haley’s goal? Your silence says more then any answer ever could! It was a highlight reel goal, and he’s still our top goal scorer at Bridgeport, so he deserved a shot more then anyone down there!

It also wouldn’t surprise me, J.J., if the Red Wings went after Talbot in the offseason. He’s a perfect replacement for Draper and would add some youth, which Detroit sorely needs.

Posted by cs6687 on 02/12/11 at 01:39 PM ET

It kind of depends on what’s happening with the cap. Right now, Helm is getting a good grooming on being Draper’s ultimate replacement (even with the same maddening habit of shooting the puck directly at the goalie’s crest). The Wings will be looking to lock up goaltending first, with Jimmy Howard becoming a UFA and then will probably look at D-men.

He didn’t so much undress Letang as Letang took a poor angle. Nice move on Johnson. Haley’s still a loser. The Islanders are still losers. But you know he was called up to fight. Admit it. It had nothing to do with skill. He’s a loser. Letang has a ring and is having a Norris Trophy-caliber season. He’s a winner.

LeTang took a poor angle. Cue the violins, here come the excuses. Haley was called up for both his toughness and his play as of late. He’s been really hot lately and Schremp has looked pedestrian. The Islanders learned from the last game that the Penguins are a dirty team, so Haley brought 2 things to the table, his scoring touch as of late and his toughness. Rob Schremp does not play a physical game, and his play in the last few weeks and sent him from 3rd line to 4th line to the bench. If Schremp had been playing better, you probably wouldn’t have seen Haley. Schremp’s poor play necessitated the Haley call up. Joensu is usually the first one up from Bridgeport, but he was called up already. So it was a few circumstances that led to Haley’s call up. Schremp has been awful, Haley has been hot and he brings a certain toughness to his game that the Islanders have been missing. If you been watching the Islanders as much as I have, you could count the number of times John Tavaras gets run at in a game, and quite often it’s not called! Teams know Tavaras is our best player and they do everything to take him out. I’m sure you’ve seen the same thing happen to Crosby, that’s why you have Godard!

I also don’t get the current sainthood of Talbot. You can say what you want, but Talbot gave Comeau a concussion the last time the Islanders played the Penguins. If you look at the hit, it’s difficult to tell if Talbot connected with Comeau’s head or not, but it is clear he was aiming for the head. The Islanders definetely had Talbot’s number, they were just waiting for a reason. Prior to turtlegate, Talbot swung his stick at our goalie, as he came up the ice, Martin followed him and challenged him. Talbot did the cowardly thing and fell to the ice and made like a turtle. Unlike the Moore situation, Talbot knew Martin wanted to fight he, Talbot did the cowardly thing and played victim and fell to the ice. Believe me, Martin doesn’t need to suker punch anyone, he can handle himself, especially against someone named Maxine!!!

Talbots slash on Datsyuk was covered by TSN,with replays and post game questions,where Talbot claimed he was playing the puck,TSN guys just said something about him having a straight face when he said that,
the puck was like 10 fett away from Dats

Anybody who knows anything about hockey, or played hockey, will say he took a poor angle. That’s a fact, not an excuse.

I also don’t get the current sainthood of Talbot. You can say what you want, but Talbot gave Comeau a concussion the last time the Islanders played the Penguins.

if Comeau suffered a concussion because of a clean hit, that’s unfortunate, but not something worthy of a sucker punch.

Prior to turtlegate, Talbot swung his stick at our goalie, as he came up the ice, Martin followed him and challenged him. Talbot did the cowardly thing and fell to the ice and made like a turtle.

Again, Talbot did nothing to the goaltender that warranted a sucker punch. Martin the coward could’ve asked him to fight, like a man would have, but instead opted for his best Bertuzzi impersonation.

especially against someone named Maxine

or Maxime, his real first name.

Face it, you know your team is full of losers, cowards, and barbarians. There’s a reason nobody wants to play there. It’s a joke organization that should get penalized severly for its pathetic actions last night. The Penguins will stick to competing for cups, The Islanders can stick to being the most poorly run franchise in the NHL.

Talbot swung his stick and hit our goaltender. I’m sure if someone swung at Fluery you’d sing a different song. Martin did ask him to fight, just like Comeau did after the hit in the previous game. The point here is that Talbot will dish it out, but he won’t back it up like a man. He ran from Martin and hid behind players on the bench when Comeau challenged him. So Martin did the right thing by your reasoning, so I guess we can agree on this point.

Yup, and the experts have been telling us Detroit has “sorely” needed this youthful injection since 1998.

Detroit’s looking pretty old this season on defense. It might be finally catching up to them in that regard. Not saying Detroit is a bad team, far from it. But this is the weakest Detroit has been defensively in a while.

Funny. The worst guys are Kindl (23) and Ericsson (25?). Kronwall is playing awful but is 30. Rafalski is horrible defensively, but that has nothing to do with age (unless he’s already going senile). And of course, Norris and Hart nominee Niklas Lidstrom is 51.

cs, I see what you mean. But Wings fans have this idea that Penguins are dirty, and that idea came from plays like Talbot slashing Datsyuk, Roberts punching recently-concussed Franzén, Crosby crosschecking Zetterberg repeatedly (instead of, you know trying to score and tie the fuching game), Orpik aiming Franzén’s knee…

And of course, there’s the Cooke factor. I have no idea how the Pens usually play, but there’s far too much shit I remember from them so to say that’s a clean team.

And of course, there’s the Cooke factor. I have no idea how the Pens usually play, but there’s far too much shit I remember from them so to say that’s a clean team.

I’m going to agree with this, though. Nothing can justify Martin or Gillies’ behavior (the Islanders behavior reminds me of Vityaz Chekhov, who the KHL nearly disbanded over a similar incident), but it does bear pointing out that the play DiPietro started and hurt himself on was a retaliation to Cooke running him twice for no reason in the then previous game. Cooke used to be involved in 1-2 questionable plays per year (which is bad enough), but it’s almost every game for at least a month. Starting to wonder if he’s more trouble than he’s worth. The problem is he more than earns his salary when he’s not doing something illegal, which is 29/30 shifts. 29/30 shifts without trying to hurt somebody is a completely unacceptable ratio, however.